Earn points on Bank Transfers

[encryptededdy]

Is there an easy feeless way?

Never done it with Citi, but usually you can just call and they'll refund it to your bank account.

 

[Steady]

Never done it with Citi, but usually you can just call and they'll refund it to your bank account.

I will give that a go

 

[Legoman]

Easy? No. Absolutely not.
The most sensible way would be to force (yes, you will need to force, because we're talking about an airline here) the refund to go back somewhere else other than the Citibank card. Obviously the biggest way to force that would be to cancel the card. The airline will then refund to the card whereupon it will bounce back. Then you'll have the fight of your life involving advocates and ombudsmen services to convince somebody that Virgin still has your money, and they will claim they refunded it. That fight will go around and around for potentially years or at least until you die of old age.

You could try asking nicely for them to refund to another account, but they will cite company policies and anti-money laundering legislation as to why they can't do that. At the end of the day, the computer will say "no" and that will be the end of that because no employee these days has the authority or dedication to overrule a computer.

You could let the refund go to the card and then write to Citibank asking them to post you a cheque for the excess credit balance. They might do this for you because credit card accounts are not for holding credit balances and if used that way they represent a significant risk for the bank acting as an ADI when that's not what the product is for. They may send you a cheque just to rid themselves of that risk. But be prepared for a fee to come out to produce and post that cheque.

There were a few free ways you could convert credit into cash deposited into a bank account like PayAll, but they're not free anymore and will come with fees attached now.

 

[Flashback]

Easy? No. Absolutely not.
The most sensible way would be to force (yes, you will need to force, because we're talking about an airline here) the refund to go back somewhere else other than the Citibank card. Obviously the biggest way to force that would be to cancel the card. The airline will then refund to the card whereupon it will bounce back. Then you'll have the fight of your life involving advocates and ombudsmen services to convince somebody that Virgin still has your money, and they will claim they refunded it. That fight will go around and around for potentially years or at least until you die of old age.

You could try asking nicely for them to refund to another account, but they will cite company policies and anti-money laundering legislation as to why they can't do that. At the end of the day, the computer will say "no" and that will be the end of that because no employee these days has the authority or dedication to overrule a computer.

You could let the refund go to the card and then write to Citibank asking them to post you a cheque for the excess credit balance. They might do this for you because credit card accounts are not for holding credit balances and if used that way they represent a significant risk for the bank acting as an ADI when that's not what the product is for. They may send you a cheque just to rid themselves of that risk. But be prepared for a fee to come out to produce and post that cheque.

There were a few free ways you could convert credit into cash deposited into a bank account like PayAll, but they're not free anymore and will come with fees attached now.

Wow, it's so much simpler in the UK. If you have a refund go back to a card in the UK, call in, identify yourself, they'll pay it back to the bank account details you give.

 

[N0mad]

Wow, it's so much simpler in the UK. If you have a refund go back to a card in the UK, call in, identify yourself, they'll pay it back to the bank account details you give.

It is that simple, i've had this in the past 2 years on a citi card that was closed and it was sitting there. Had it transferred at the time to my Citi bank account.

I've had other cards go into credit and i've called up after the funds have cleared onto the card and requested the credit balance be paid to a bank account. Never an issue.

 

[Legoman]

Wow, it's so much simpler in the UK. If you have a refund go back to a card in the UK, call in, identify yourself, they'll pay it back to the bank account details you give.

First of all "call in" - sounds simple, but is anything but. Firstly, no company actually answers the phone, so there's that. At best you'll be able to leave your details for a call back sometime in the future, which will most likely be 'never'.

Secondly "identify yourself" - again, sounds simple but is not. No-one believes anything anyone says over a phone these days, so identity will have to be done by wet-signed certified documents posted on paper, which then won't be accepted because you didn't include certification of the certifier, which they never told you about requiring. But the time you've repeated the whole process again and it's taken another week to be posted and another week for them to open and actually read, they've changed their company policy to only accept certified documents within 4 weeks of receipt, and yours are now all out of date, so rejected again. This goes on and on and on endlessly until you either give up, or you go completely postal waving a gun around and get thrown in prison.

 

[ChrisMars]

I had an absolute nightmare experience on a qantas refund to a closed anz card. Sooo much pain that some ANZ customer manager called to apologies, and throw 200AUD sorry credit. I wished I didnt have to go through so many calls stat dec etc...

On the other hand, it was painless on another card many years ago. Mileage varies.

My advice, don t close a cc if it has some booking attached (which may means, keep a dedicated cc open for bookings).

 

[Legoman]

I had an absolute nightmare experience on a qantas refund to a closed anz card. Sooo much pain that some ANZ customer manager called to apologies, and throw 200AUD sorry credit. I wished I didnt have to go through so many calls stat dec etc...

On the other hand, it was painless on another card many years ago.

Exactly. The people who remember the process being "painless" are talking about when it could be done many years ago before the death of common sense. Today there are KYC and AML legislation that immediately flags anything like wanting credit balances on credit cards transferred to bank accounts as 'money laundering' and AUSTRAC wants to know what the bank is doing and why. Credits these days must go back to the original source of those funds, and if that's impossible due to closed account or whatever else, then the process gets very much harder and time consuming and you will be forced to jump through every flaming hoop they can invent to prove you're not a gangster.

The assumption first and foremost is that you're guilty and then you must prove that you're not. They deliberately make it very, very hard to prove the negative that you're not a gangster.

 

[Phoenix-1]

I had ANZ refund a positive balance to a bank account a month ago, albeit from a closed account.

 

[Flashback]

First of all "call in" - sounds simple, but is anything but. Firstly, no company actually answers the phone, so there's that. At best you'll be able to leave your details for a call back sometime in the future, which will most likely be 'never'.

Secondly "identify yourself" - again, sounds simple but is not. No-one believes anything anyone says over a phone these days, so identity will have to be done by wet-signed certified documents posted on paper, which then won't be accepted because you didn't include certification of the certifier, which they never told you about requiring. But the time you've repeated the whole process again and it's taken another week to be posted and another week for them to open and actually read, they've changed their company policy to only accept certified documents within 4 weeks of receipt, and yours are now all out of date, so rejected again. This goes on and on and on endlessly until you either give up, or you go completely postal waving a gun around and get thrown in prison.

OK, not the case here. My calls are always picked up pretty quickly and ID verified without any issues.

 

[NoName]

Exactly. The people who remember the process being "painless" are talking about when it could be done many years ago before the death of common sense. Today there are KYC and AML legislation that immediately flags anything like wanting credit balances on credit cards transferred to bank accounts as 'money laundering' and AUSTRAC wants to know what the bank is doing and why. Credits these days must go back to the original source of those funds, and if that's impossible due to closed account or whatever else, then the process gets very much harder and time consuming and you will be forced to jump through every flaming hoop they can invent to prove you're not a gangster.

The assumption first and foremost is that you're guilty and then you must prove that you're not. They deliberately make it very, very hard to prove the negative that you're not a gangster.

100%!

I accidentally overpaid a tax bill with Coles gift Mastercards last year (overestimated what my bill would be when paying in advance) and they won’t refund to my bank account (or anywhere else other than the long since disposed of cards) despite providing proof of purchase of said gift Mastercards on a credit card in my name, proof the funds to repay said credit card came from a bank account in my name, proof of the reason for paying with the gift Mastercards (10% discount) and an offer to complete a statutory declaration regarding all the circumstances etc. No interest paid in more than a year. Now they won’t even transfer a small refund from the follow year’s tax return. So the money sits there theoretically forever. Have been forced to take it to the tax ombudsman so probably get resolved this time next year if lucky.

 

[ChrisMars]

I had ANZ refund a positive balance to a bank account a month ago, albeit from a closed account.

My issue was that qantas refunded to anz, anz didnt see the refund, I went back to qantas, they say they refund me, back and forth a few time, until a "better" anz agent found trace of the money, but I had to hang up at that time for an important meeting, then no other anz agent found the money, until it get escalated, then they realise they got the money, but since I don t have an anz account, send it back to qantas after 30 days, then I had to write a stat dec for qantas to send it to another account etc... Really not fun.

Again, I had a few easy refund process, but all it take is that one terrible experience to understand it's not worth taking risks. ANZ throwing 200AUD as a sorry, is clear evidence of their incompetence in handling that refund. And during this whole time, I was convinced it was Qantas the problem, because of their terrible refund reputation at that time.

 

[Flashback]

My issue was that qantas refunded to anz, anz didnt see the refund, I went back to qantas, they say they refund me, back and forth a few time, until a "better" anz agent found trace of the money, but I had to hang up at that time for an important meeting, then no other anz agent found the money, until it get escalated, then they realise they got the money, but since I don t have an anz account, send it back to qantas after 30 days, then I had to write a stat dec for qantas to send it to another account etc... Really not fun.

Again, I had a few easy refund process, but all it take is that one terrible experience to understand it's not worth taking risks. ANZ throwing 200AUD as a sorry, is clear evidence of their incompetence in handling that refund. And during this whole time, I was convinced it was Qantas the problem, because of their terrible refund reputation at that time.

Well, Aussie banking systems are notoriously poor and antiquated. Says it all really.

 

[Happy Dude]

@Steady wouldn't it be easiest to keep the card open until you spend the $6k? It's only going to be a small holding cost (ie not getting interest on the $6k somewhere else until it's used up. I'd throw it at ACT rates or rego or my health insurance as no surcharge for cards.

 

[Steady]

@Steady wouldn't it be easiest to keep the card open until you spend the $6k? It's only going to be a small holding cost (ie not getting interest on the $6k somewhere else until it's used up. I'd throw it at ACT rates or rego or my health insurance as no surcharge for cards.

Your probably right

 

[ecst]

Watching/reading the news on there spectrum of scams targeting Aussies, it does give interest insight on the financial literacy & sophistication of the typical “layperson”.

Most of the younger generation are fully conversant on eBanking while some in the regions still insist on cash. From a public policy perspective, what gives if our beloved banks were to suddenly go with times and go with the state of the art technologies?

 

[Flyfrequently]

My advice, don t close a cc if it has some booking attached (which may means, keep a dedicated cc open for bookings).

Agree @ChrisMars - except for when a ne'er do well tried 2 fraudulent transactions at 3am and Amex had to cancel said c.c.

 

[padders]

Totally hypothetically, if I have two citi cards - say, Rewards and Premier - and I earn 10,000 rewards points on my Rewards card, but also use my Premier to earn 500 points
Am I transferring 10,500 points at 2:1 or 2.5:1 ?

 

[Phoenix-1]

I think the points are kept separate. The rewards will redeem at 2.5:1 and premier at 2:1.

 

[SOPOOR]

I called up today for my 3 x missing months of transactions in 2024

Operator wouldnt budge. Gave me $25 credit despite me asking for the points. Said the failed trans was because it has to be 5 business days before the transaction.
So even the transaction was on the 5th and i had funds between 1st and 3rd on all the months,

Not happy but i kind of dont want to rock the boat and them intentionally/unintentionally cancel the payall

Edit: anyone else called up to claw back their missed transactions?